If Jimmy Margulies seems to have submitted national cartoons for a local cartoon contest, it is only because New York City is his backyard. He was the staff cartoonist for 22 years at The Record in northern New Jersey, and his commentary on The Big Apple appears regularly in amNew York. A multiple award winner, his cartoons are distributed nationwide by King Features. Margulies notes he is especially proud to be on the National Rifle Association blacklist.
Meanwhile, across the country Dan McConnell has been drawing for The Wenatchee World, covering issues once a month in a town smack in the middle of Washington state. "I'm still doing local political cartoons but now sometimes I can bend National Political ideas that have an affect on our local community," he says, such as this take on the real cost of digital currency and Trump's tariffs.
[Throughout his life, Rex Babin championed those who focused on state and local issues in editorial cartoons, a field that he and other cartoonists felt was regularly overlooked by journalism contests. The "Rex Babin Memorial Award for Excellence in Local Cartooning" was launched in 2017 to celebrate those working in this niche. To that end, we will be showcasing each cartoonist who entered the contest this year, one or two each day in alphabetical order (more or less), leading up to the AAEC Convention in Sacramento, CA, and the announcement of the award winner on Saturday, Sept. 22.]
